Change A Post To Draft, To Change The Post URL

Long ago, a renamed blog post would automatically receive a new URL, to match a change in date or title.

Blog owners would happily rename posts - and see a new URL, with no problem. Those blog owners who monitored search engine activity, however, later became concerned by the "404"s, shown in the search engine activity logs, in Webmaster Tools - or from various test searches.

Blogger later gave us dashboard and post editor options, to let us intentionally change a post URL, when necessary - and stopped allowing incidental changes to the date or URL, when editing post content.

Settings - Search preferences has the "Custom Page Not Found" and "Custom Redirects" wizards, for dealing with existing posts with changed URLs - and the Post Editor "Post settings" has the "Permalink" wizard, to change URLs of new posts.

This gives blog owners the ability to Edit and Publish posts, and to adjust URLs, independently - and makes it harder for owners to accidentally generate "404"s with existing posts.

You can change a post to Draft status, to change the date or URL.

Recently, people discovered that changing a Published post, to Draft status, would reset a post. A Published post, changed to Draft, and later Published again, would act as a new post would have, when Published.

Blog owners wishing to change the URL of an existing post would change a post back to Draft status, change the Date and / or Title, then Republish - and the post would have a new URL to match the new Date / Title.

This worked great - for owners intentionally wanting a new URL for their renamed posts.

You can also publish a post to Draft, to re use the URL of that post.

If you delete a post, then publish a new post with that same title, you will get a post with a URL containing a duplication prevention suffix - because deletion of a post does not let you re use a URL. If you publish a post to Draft, that resets the URL - and lets you publish a new post to that same URL.

Saving a post as Draft, to edit, can allow URL change - and cause broken links.

Some blog owners use Draft status, for previously Published posts, differently

You can take a published post offline, as a Draft post - then change the Title, and various other settings. This will not change the URL - unless you also change the Permalink, before you Publish.

If you do change the URL, be mindful of the links that may refer to the old URL.

If you want the URL to change, you will have to change the permalink.

While the post is in Draft status, find "Permalink" in "Post settings", in the right sidebar of post editor. Select "Custom Permalink", and change the title section of the post URL. Then select "Done".

Note you will only be able to change the title section of the permalink. You can't change the year, month, or extension ("html") any more.

If I wanted to, I could rename this post, when in Draft status.

Change Posts To Draft, To Change The Post URLs

I could change the post URL, to match.

change-posts-to-draft-to-change-post-urls

The most obvious change that I could get, then would be

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2015/01/change-posts-to-draft-to-change-post-urls.html

Fix broken links, by adding a custom redirect.

We can use the same tools to correct mistakes, as we can to make changes.

If you change the URL - and cause broken links, and / or "404" entries in Search Console / Webmaster Tools, when re Publishing a Draft post, just add a Custom redirect from the old URL, to the new URL. One new redirect takes but a few seconds to add - and will keep your readers, the search engines, and you happier.

Change The Sequence Of Your Posts

If there's one question, seen occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger?, that confounds me, its a simple one.

How do I change the order of my posts?

or

Why does my blog display the newest post first? Where is the option, to change to oldest post first?

It is very difficult to respond both correctly, and helpfully, to both questions, equally well.

Blogger does not provide a dashboard setting, to change the post display sequence. Post sequence is only changed, by altering the date and time of the posts.

Long ago, changing the post sequence was simple.

Change the date and time of each post.

You could use the Schedule wizard in Post Editor "Post settings", select "Set date and time", and change each post, to whatever value you require. Each changed post would have a new URL - and would display according to the new URL.

To prevent various problems, caused by uncontrolled date / time changes, Blogger later changed the post editor. Now, once a post is published, you can't back date the post date or time.

The key word there is "published". You can't back date a published post - but you can re publish a post, by saving it as Draft. Just un publish each post as Draft - then use "Set date and time", back date, and Publish again.

You can back date as far as 1970. If you need the blog to display dates preceding 1970, you'll have to use "fake" dates, as you back date.

You can use the Posts menu to set up to 50 posts, in one step, as Draft. You will have to use Post Editor, one post at a time, to back date and re publish, however. This will be some tedium, for you.

Now, be careful here! If you resequence the posts after they have been indexed by the search engines - and if the resequencing involves URL changes - you're going to have "404"s from broken links. This is going to hurt reader and search engine reputation.

If your resequencing involves URL changes - and you care about the reputation of the blog - plan to add a custom redirect, for each post that gets a new URL, pointing from the old URL to the new URL. And this will be more tedium, for you.

But at least there is an answer to

Where is the option, to change to oldest post first?

The answer simply involves some repetitive work, on your part.

Two Level Comments And The Comments Time / Date Stamp

Yesterday, Blogger Support delivered one long awaited improvement to our blogs - two level commenting. It was eagerly awaited - and as soon as the Buzz announcement hit the Blogosphere, people were busy checking out the new feature.

Predictably, problem reports have been rolling in, all day today, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken. One noticed problem report concerns the date / time stamp on the comments.

All of the comments on my blog, even on previous posts, now show an incorrect time. I double-checked my setting, it is correctly set my local time.

The general consensus appears to be that all comments are now posting as Pacific Time (USA), regardless of the blog time zone setting.

This problem, along with several others, has been reported to Blogger Support - and they are now looking into this issue.

Watch this space for updates.

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Mail-To-Blogger, And Problems From Mobile Blog Posting Volumes

Mobile blogging is becoming more and more popular - and it's creating an interesting challenge. Many blog owners, freed from the daily use of the home computer, are publishing multiple smaller posts, throughout the day - instead of a few larger posts, at the end of the day. Also, they are using mobile computers, and emailing or messaging the posts using Mail-To-Blogger, rather than composing the posts using the GUI Post Editor.

Lately, we're seeing more and more problem reports,in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Why are my posts not publishing?

Many of the people reporting problems are mobile bloggers, not understanding about the unavoidable limitations.

Mobile blogging, when used this way, presents two challenges.

1. The daily posting volume frequently exceeds anti-spam detection limits.
2. Use of a mobile computer, without the Blogger GUI Post Editor, prevents use of the anti-spam CAPTCHA, when necessitated by the posting volume.

The convenience of the mobile computer / smartphone motivates many blog owners to publish multiple small posts, throughout the day. The posting volume frequently makes a mobile blog owner look like a spammer, and the Blogger anti-spam mitigation becomes involved.

When exceeding daily post limits, and using Post Editor, the Blogger anti-spam mitigation will simply require solving of a CAPTCHA. This prevents spammers from flooding their blogs with multiple, spammy posts, by requiring all posts exceeding the daily limit to be published only after the CAPTCHA is solved. When the posts are submitted using Mail-To-Blogger, there is no opportunity to solve a CAPTCHA - and Mail-To-Blogger either saves those posts as Drafts, or simply drops them.

Generally, the missing posts can be found in the "Edit Posts" list (Classic Blogger GUI) or the "Posts" list (New Blogger GUI), in Draft status. The blog owner, at end of the day, simply must use a full featured computer, access the GUI wizard, and Publish all Draft posts.

If you are seeing this problem with your blog, do not consider the number "50", and the time span "24 hours", to be absolute standards. Depending upon where in the world you are located, the "24 hour" period may reset at some time which is not consistent with your personal 24 hour schedule. In some cases, 2 consecutive days, with less than 50 posts each day, may look like 1 day, to the anti-spam mitigation process.

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